This weekend, Formula 1 heads to Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring after last week’s spellbinding British Grand Prix. The previous race had a bit of everything, fierce battles, a surprise winner, retirements and a crash that made the world hold their breaths.
It might be a hard race to top as far as entertainment is concerned, but for Red Bull and Max Verstappen, redemption will be on the agenda. The team will be looking to take maximum points at their home race. As such, Max is the favorite in this week's Austrian Grand Prix odds.
If you’re new to betting on Formula 1 racing or just need a refresher after the sports layoff, you’re in luck because we have a handy How to Bet Formula 1 guide to gear you up to speed.
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Odds To Win The 2022 Austrian Grand Prix
| Driver | Odds |
|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | -110 |
| Charles Leclerc | +225 |
| Carlos Sainz | +800 |
| Lewis Hamilton | +900 |
| Sergio Perez | +1000 |
| George Russell | +1600 |
Odds as of July 9 at Sportsbook
Bet on the Austrian Grand Prix here!
It's All About Max & Red Bull
The Austrian Grand Prix is Red Bull’s home race, and typically sees hordes of Dutch fans making the trip to the circuit. So, Max will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing seventh-placed finish at Silverstone.
Of course, Red Bull have by far been the best performer this season with seven wins and 13 podiums in 10 races. So, if circumstances don’t go haywire heading into turn 1, Max and Red Bull will like their chances to take the win.
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The Red Bull Ring has a nice mix of stop-and-go sections, as well as high-speed corners. To make matters more challenging, the track has quite a lot of uphill and downhill sections, which makes it challenging to brake perfectly into a corner.
Given that Red Bull have a relatively low downforce setup compared to that of the Ferrari, one could expect there to be more of a challenge than at other tracks for Red Bull.
Elsewhere, Perez is just 34 points behind Verstappen and will be looking to throw his hat in the ring for the F1 championship fight, considering that we are about halfway through with this season. Still, considering that Verstappen has won three of the last four Austrian Grand Prix, he is most certainly the favorite heading into this weekend.
Austrian Grand Prix Value Picks
Perez’s performances this season have been incredible considering the string of disappointing seasons that the second Red Bull has had since Daniel Ricciardo’s departure. Considering that, it is certainly an attractive proposition to bet on Perez (+1000) to take the win.
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Simply put, he is in the best position to bring home maximum points for Red Bull on the occasion that there are on-track incidents for Max Verstappen such as what occurred at the British Grand Prix.
Austrian Grand Prix Betting Strategy
As stated previously, the Red Bull Ring has a nice mix of long straights, tight corners and high-speed corners. Accordingly, cars that have a good balance between top speed and aerodynamics are the ones that are best suited to perform well here.
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Typically, that would mean that Ferrari has the best car for the Grand Prix, however, given that the Ferrari simply isn’t as strong as the Red Bull in terms of tire management, and also given that Ferrari have mismanaged their races on multiple occasions, there are simply too many question marks around Ferrari at the moment.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen and Red Bull have pretty much run away with the championship lead, and they are as close to a sure thing as one can get, despite Max’s seventh-placed finish at the British Grand Prix. That is why, Max Verstappen is our pick to win the Austrian Grand Prix.
Race Technicals
Located among the Styrian mountains, the 4.3 km long Red Bull Ring is one of the shortest circuits on the calendar. Despite its length, the circuit packs a lot of action. The first half of the lap is all about top speed.
Drivers will be looking to make the best exits out of corners to make the most of the lengthy straights, so cars with a high top speed will certainly be rewarded. However, things become a lot more dicey heading into the downhill second half of the circuit, as drivers manoeuvre their cars through twisting highspeed corners.
Previous Race
The epic 2022 British Grand Prix had an incredibly dramatic start to the race as Pierre Gasly found himself sandwiched between George Russell’s Mercedes and Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo, which caused Russell to slam into the side of the Alfa, leading to a terrifying high-speed crash after just the first few corners of the race.
The incident brought out the red flag, but just before the flag came out, Max Verstappen had managed to pip polesitter Carlos Sainz for the lead. Elsewhere, Perez and Leclerc had collided into the obtuse Turn 3.
The red flag lasted well over a half hour, and once the race resumed, Max looked to pull away. However, Sainz kept up the pressure. After a few laps, Max Verstappen went over a piece of debris on the track, which led to a puncture and structural damage to his car.
The issue wasn’t one that could be fixed in a pit stop, so the Red Bull team decided to put Max on fresh hard tires and shifted their focus to Sergio Perez, who was 17th at one point after his first lap collision with Leclerc.
All this is to say, it looked like Ferrari had a good result in the bag. However, when there was a safety car with a little over 10 laps remaining in the race, Ferrari decided to hedge their bets and pit Sainz while leaving Leclerc out on older tires. The rest of the top six also pit for new tires, which led to Leclerc being in a vulnerable position.
The Monegasque driver would go on to finish fourth, after losing out in an epic battle at the end of the race to Hamilton and Perez, while Sainz smoothly operated his car through the remaining laps and took the checkered flag to earn his first-ever victory in Formula 1.
